Free showing of "Shawnee Showdown: Keep the Forest Standing" on 5/11 at 7:00 pm.

During the late 1980s and the 1990s, a small, dedicated group of activists fought on the ground and in the courts to stop clear-cutting, oil and gas drilling, and ATV use in the Shawnee National Forest located in Southern Illinois. They won the support of their community and the struggle in a landmark court case.

Seventeen years later, the court lifted the injunction, and the Forest Service resumed logging. "Shawnee Showdown: Keep the Forest Standing" portrays the struggle to protect the forest through interviews, photographs, and archival news footage. The film examines how the past struggle can serve to inform the public and activists today in responding to current Forest Service management projects.

These activists are once again asking hard questions about public land use. Should our public land be degraded to generate commercial profit for a few? With the effects of climate change intensifying and the knowledge that mature forests sequester more carbon, why not keep the Shawnee National Forest standing as a regional carbon sink? How can the forest remain a healthy habitat for struggling forest species like forest interior and migratory songbirds? Will our Illinois treasure be despoiled? How do we keep the forest standing?

Global Justice Ecology Project and Standing Trees presents "Shawnee Showdown: Keep the Forest Standing" with special guests Cade Bursell, the filmmaker and John Wallace, one of the activists who fought on the ground over thirty years ago in the Shawnee Forest.

You can register here: https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_6L_3n38VT8e_Rf_B4PMIOA

You can see the film trailer here: https://vimeo.com/619337732